07/19/11

Miami String Quartet

Miami String Quartet to play at JCCC

OVERLAND PARK – Kan. – The Miami String Quartet, one of the most respected chamber foursomes in the country, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, at Yardley Hall in the Carlsen Center at Johnson County Community College.

Tickets are $10 in advance, $15 at the door. They are available through the Performing Arts Series box office at (913) 469-4445. Youth 18 and under are free.

The concert will take place during the annual Heartland Chamber Music Festival, which runs from July 29 to Aug. 6 at JCCC and offers four other free student and faculty performances that will be open to the public. Members of the Miami String Quartet also will spend two days in residency to work with the 90 young music students who will be taking part in the festival.

The Miami String Quartet was founded in 1988 at The New World School of the Arts in Miami, Fla., and is now Quartet in Residence at Kent State University in Ohio. Its members, who have won numerous awards of excellence, are Benny Kim and Cathy Meng Robinson, violin; Yu Jin, viola; and Keith Robinson, cello.

The program will be String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18 by Beethoven; Piano Quintet No. 2 in E flat, Op. 26 by Ernst Von Dohnanyi; and String Quartet in D minor, D. 810 “Death and the Maiden” by Schubert.

The festival, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary season, is geared for music students ages 8 to 24 who study string, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano and harp. The students, who were selected through auditions, are placed into chamber music ensembles and work one-on-one with world-renowned musicians who serve as faculty.

The four free performances will take place in Yardley Hall of the Carlsen Center. Faculty will perform at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 31, and at noon Tuesday, Aug. 2; and students will perform at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 5, and 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6.  The Aug. 2 event has been billed as a special Ruel Joyce summer recital.

The festival is organized by the Heartland Chamber Music Academy and by JCCC’s Arts in Education program.

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